Big Yang Theory – Chinese year of the sheep or goat?

China’s coming Lunar New Year has stirred a debate over which zodiac creature is the correct one – but Chinese folklorists dismiss the fixation on animals as missing the point.

Traditional astrology in China attaches different animal signs to each lunar year in a cycle of 12 years.

The symbol for the new year starting on February 19 is the “yang”, which can refer to any member of the caprinae subfamily – or even beyond – depending on what additional Chinese character it is paired up with.

For example, a goat is a “mountain yang”, a sheep is a “soft yang” and a Mongolian gazelle is a “yellow yang”.

Both goats and sheep appear in Chinese new year paintings, paper-cuts and other festival decorations.

Visitors look at lanterns in the shape of the Chinese Terracotta Warriors at Sydney Harbour that were created for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 by a team of Chinese artists and are on display for the first time in Australia

Chinese performers in traditional costumes pose with celebrants at the Badachu temple in Beijing on February 16 for the upcoming Lunar New Year. PHOTOS: AFP

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Folklorists say it does not matter which one is used since the zodiac sign was chosen for the Chinese character’s auspicious connotation rather than the specific animal – at least in the beginning.

“This ‘yang’ is fictional. It does not refer to any specific kind (of sheep or goat),” Zhao Shu, a researcher with the Beijing Research Institute of Culture and History, told AFP.

“Yang” is a component of the written Chinese character “xiang”, which means auspiciousness, and the two were interchangeable in ancient Chinese, experts say.

It is also a part of the character “shan”, which counts kindness and benevolence as among its meanings.

“Therefore ‘yang’ is a symbol of… blessing and fortune and represents good things,” said Yin Hubin, an ethnology researcher with the China Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank.

“It is connected to the original implication of the Chinese character as an ideogram and reflects the world view of the Chinese people in primitive times,” he said.

That said, the zodiac sign is being shunned by some Chinese parents-to-be, with expectant mothers scheduling Caesarean sections to give birth before the current year of the horse ends, according to media reports.

The rush apparently stems from a Chinese superstition held by some that nine out of 10 sheep will be unhappy in life – a belief Yin dismissed as “ridiculous”.